New Tory party leader to be announced

The winner of the Conservative leadership contest will be revealed later this morning.

UK Shadow Housing Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, and former UK immigration Minister Robert Jenrick are the final two contenders to replace Rishi Sunak.

Both leadership contenders have said that they believe turnout may have been low.

Polls closed on Thursday evening. The winner will be announced at 11am.

Whoever that may be has a significant challenge on their hands, turning around a party that suffered historic losses in the General Election.

Immigration, the economy, and how the Conservatives can rebuild trust with the electorate and win back voters they lost at the election have all been discussed at length through the campaign.

The party lost seats to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK in the July poll returning only 121 MPs to the House of Commons.

Ms Badenoch is seen by many as the favourite to become leader of the opposition.

However, the leadership race has already proven to be unpredictable with supporters of Mr Jenrich believing he is very much in contention to win.

Additional reporting by PA